Profits posted at Royal Mail despite slump May 14, 2009 ROYAL MAIL’S profits have almost doubled, the postal service said yesterday, as all four sections of the company entered the black for the first time in two decades. The whole group’s operating profit hit £321m for the year to the end of March, up from £162m last year, and showed its letter delivery arm and [...]
Trio of bidders go head to head in war for stake in broker Panmure Gordon May 14, 2009 HEDGE fund millionaire Bertrand des Pallieres went head to head with private equity firm BlueGem and a mystery bidder last night in the fight for a large stake in Panmure Gordon, one of the City’s oldest stockbrokers. Final proposals were due in by yesterday evening, in time for a board meeting at Panmure today to [...]
Russian plots Lloyd’s entry via Chaucer May 14, 2009 RUSSIAN billionaire Alex Knaster unveiled plans to buy his way into the Lloyd’s of London insurance market yesterday, saying he is interested in taking a 29.9 per cent stake in Chaucer Holdings. Chaucer chief executive Ewen Gilmour confirmed the interest and ongoing takeover discussions, from Knaster’s private equity firm Pamplona Capital, in an official statement [...]
Sony braces the market for further losses May 14, 2009 SONY Corporation forecast a second straight year of losses as the global recession battered demand for consumer electronics. But the Japanese company stopped short of taking any new aggressive steps to cut costs further. Sony, which competes with Samsung Electronics in LCD TVs and Canon in digital cameras, forecast an operating loss of 110 billion yen [...]
Ratings firms slated in MPs’ crunch report May 14, 2009 CREDIT ratings agencies (CRAs) should bear some of the responsibility for financial instability, the Treasury committee said yesterday, as it revealed its report on corporate governance and remuneration at financial services firms in the wake of the credit crunch. The committee, led by Labour attack dog John McFall, said it was “deeply concerned by the [...]
Lehman’s remaining assets set to rise from ashes as a spin off is considered May 14, 2009 LEHMAN Brothers Holdings, which filed for bankruptcy last September, is now looking at spinning off its remaining assets. The assets, which include real-estate and private-equity holdings held in its Legacy Asset Management unit, are believed to currently be valued at around $45bn, but which at non-distressed prices could fetch up to $400bn according to internal [...]
Japan’s MUFG abandons plan to snap up NikkoCiti May 14, 2009 JAPAN’S largest bank Mitsubishi UFG (MUFG) yesterday walked away from a $262m (£172m) deal to buy Citigroup’s trust bank NikkoCiti. An unlisted unit of the bank called Mitsubishi UFJ Trust said in December that it was prepared to snap up the unit, but the transaction was called off after rival Sumitomo Mitsui beat MUFG to [...]
CITY GIVES ITS VERDICT ON MPS’ FINDINGS May 14, 2009 CREDIT RATING AGENCIES“We remain deeply concerned by the conflict of interests faced by credit rating agencies and have seen little evidence of the industry tackling this problem with any sense of urgency. It is worrying that markets appear to have used credit rating agencies for more than they were designed to do.” AUDITORS“We note that [...]
BOLLYWOOD HIT BY MUMBAI TERROR ATTACKS May 14, 2009 BOLLYWOOD film investment firm Indian Film Company yesterday issued a profit warning for the full year after it was hit by the global economic downturn and the terror attacks in Mumbai. The firm said its film Dil Kabaddi had failed to perform well at the box office after being released a week after the attacks, [...]
Bonus cut for Railway chief May 14, 2009 NETWORK RAIL chief executive Iain Coucher has given up his annual bonus, he announced yesterday, saying he didn’t want his pay to overshadow the company’s performance. But Coucher will still be paid his annual long-term bonus, which is based on how well the company has done over the past three years. The decision comes ahead [...]